


Moving On

by wallflowergardens



Category: Game Over Man! (movie)
Genre: Aftermath of Violence, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, mentions of hostage situation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-14
Updated: 2018-11-14
Packaged: 2019-08-23 10:32:08
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,077
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16617278
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wallflowergardens/pseuds/wallflowergardens
Summary: Joel, Darren, and Alexxx deal with life after the hostage situation at the hotel. Joel and Darren find comfort in each other.





	Moving On

**Author's Note:**

> literally i'm pretty sure absolutely no one is going to read this but i had to write it or i was gonna go crazy asdlshadfkj i've been ona . workaholics binge recently and i watched this fucking movie like two days in a row and i love it so here it is

Darren and Joel hooked up sometimes when they were both drunk. On the nights where they would stay up late, drinking beer, and working on the Skintendo Joysuit. Over the course of the night they would drift closer and closer together until they were basically sitting on top of each other and Joel’s lips landed on his.

Joel was working intently on the prototype. He kept pushing his glasses up his nose because they would slide down everytime he bent over to fiddle with something. Darren was sitting on the floor, his back against the couch and took a slow sip of his beer as he watched Joel work. Darren reached out and brushed a piece of hair that was loose from Joel’s ponytail. Joel blushed and looked down with a small smile on his face. Darren smiled back at him and took another sip of his beer before setting it down and crawling towards Joel.  

“Take a break,” Darren whispered. He ran his fingers through Joel’s hair and took the hair tie out so his hair would be free around his head, “I like when you wear your hair down.”

“There's so much of it, really hard to deal with when it’s not in the ponytail,” Joel said and put his hand on the back of Darren’s head and pulled him in for another kiss. Darren moved to lay Joel down so his hair was spread out around his head like a halo. He went to straddle Joel and leaned down to kiss him again, the work they were doing on the Skintendo forgotten.

They never talked about it in the morning and Joel would always convince himself he didn’t remember. Both Darren and Alexxx knew that Joel was gay. He told them every time they got drunk together but he never remembered or at least that’s what the boys thought. Joel remembered telling them he just hoped the other guys were too drunk to remember since Darren was usually tweaking on Salvia and Alexxx always drank to the point of puking so he figured it was safe.

Once the hostage situation happened and they were all sure they were gonna die, Joel told them, sober, that he was gay. He was genuinely surprised they knew but he was glad they were supportive. It was a weight off of his shoulders and he felt stronger and more sure of himself once he did it. He felt like he was on top of the world and nothing could stop him which was very much needed when the German bitch was threatening to kill them.

That night, after they talked to the police, after they were checked out by EMT’s, they left the hotel and never went back. Alexxx crashed on Joel’s couch since he was living at the hotel, he didn't have a home. He promised to start house hunting as soon as possible but Joel told him it wasn’t a big deal. Joel brought out blankets for Alexxx and Darren and told them goodnight. He went to his big lonely bed and tried to fall asleep to no avail. The room was dark because the curtains were drawn, but around 6 am he heard his door creak open and Darren was illuminated in the doorway by the bathroom light still on in the hallway.

“Alexxx is asleep,” Darren said looking unsure of himself. Joel lifted the blanket and Darren basically dove into the bed with him and took Joel in his arms.

“I was so fucking scared you were gonna die,” Darren whispered into Joel’s neck, “I can’t lose you man.”

“It’s okay,” Joel whispered over and over again as he twisted his fingers in Darren’s hair. They both had tears streaming down their faces but neither of them mentioned it. Darren began kissing Joel with so much passion and intensity it made Joel breathless.

“I love you,” Darren said quietly as he broke away to look into Joel’s eyes. Joel knew how hard it was for Darren to say that and he let out a cross between a gasp and a sob.

“I love you too,” Joel said so quietly he was basically mouthing the words. Darren pushed Joel’s hair back and began kissing him again. That night he fucked Joel, slow and deep into the mattress as they clung to each other, a reminder that they were still alive.

* * *

After the whole hostage fiasco, and after Joel was finally officially out of the closet, things changed. Darren stopped smoking Salvia which relieved Joel. He didn’t like watching Darren tweak on that shit. Even though they didn’t work at the hotel anymore because of all the money they made from the videogame, the three of them still hung out with each other everyday. After all the shit they went through together, they were closer than ever. Joel and Darren started spending all of their nights together at Joel’s apartment. They never told Alexxx about their sort of relationship but he eventually figured it out. He never said anything but he would always give them looks or drop little hints that he knew, but he didn’t care. He was just glad that his friends were happy.

None of them admitted it but they were all still pretty fucked up from that night. They did a good job of hiding it from each other for the most part but them being as close as they were, some things were bound to slip. Joel would get awful nightmares that Darren would have shake him awake from. He would look around the room frantically until he realized it was just him and Darren. Darren would always run his fingers through Joel’s hair to calm him down as they slowly fell back asleep. He never asked him what happened in his dreams, but he could guess.

Darren didn’t get nightmares but being in public become infinitely harder for him. He was content staying home all day but Joel would make him go out for lunch with him or go to the store with him. He would jump and his breathing would pick up whenever someone walked near him. Once that happened he would move closer to Joel so they were touching in someway. That usually calmed him down but his heart would race for the rest of their outing.

“I think I want to move somewhere different,” Joel said one morning. Him and Darren were laying in bed, his head resting on Darren’s chest and Darren’s arms wrapped around him in a comforting manor.

“Where to?” Darren asked after a minute.

“I don’t know, somewhere nicer. I mean I have all this money now and I’m still in this shitty apartment,” Joel said. Darren didn’t say anything and Joel looked up to him to try and read his expression. He was looking up at the ceiling with a frown on his face, “I don't know, maybe we can move closer to Alexxx,” Joel said with a shrug.

“We?” Darren asked with surprise in his voice.

“Yeah man, we,” Joel said. He rubbed his hand up and down Darren’s torso. Darren breathed out a sigh of relief and moved to kiss Joel hard on the mouth.

The next day Joel and Darren sat on the bed and surfed the internet for apartment listings in Alexxx’s neighborhood. He lived in a nice neighborhood with pricey but modest apartments. It’s not the place they expected Alexxx to move to but after the hostage situation, something changed in him. He didn't care about proving his wealth to people anymore.

They found a couple apartments that were a good fit for them and that were in walking distance from Alexxx’s apartment. Joel called the realtor to ask about checking it out and they made an appointment to tour the place the next week. Joel and Darren immediately started packing random things in Joel’s apartment. Darren texted Alexxx to tell them the news and he came over to help pack things.

“Should we go to your apartment to pack your stuff?” Joel asked the next night. Darren was rarely ever at his own apartment so Joel assumed there was some stuff he might want to grab from there.

“I guess. There's not much there. Most of the stuff I care about I have here but I guess I should clean it out,” Darren said. Later that day they drove the 20 minutes it takes to get to Darren’s apartment. Joel hadn’t been here since before the hostage situation so seeing the apartment was like a blast into the past.

Everything about it was so fitting for the old Darren that is was almost painful to be there. There were empty beer cans, dirty clothes, and wrappers littering different areas of the apartment. The rest of the place was pretty bare since most of his stuff was at Joel’s apartment but there was not good energy connected to Darren’s former home. It made both of them uncomfortable being there and they walked around putting all the garbage and random stuff Darren didn’t want anymore into trash bags.

In Darren’s old bedroom, there was a small twin sized bed in the corner with a nightstand next to it. Joel went to throw out the couple of beer cans around the bed and on the nightstand but stopped when he saw the picture sitting on the nightstand. He set the garbage bag down and reached out to grab it. The picture was of him and Darren a couple years ago sitting in Joel’s apartment. He remembered the night the picture was taken. It was one night after a long day of work. They went to drink at Joel’s apartment and Alexxx took the picture of him and Darren sitting on the balcony. Joel still had his awful sideburns, his hair was pulled back into his ponytail, and he was leaning back into the folding chair. Darren was leaning forward and smiling at Joel with a beer bottle in his hand like he was mid laugh at something Joel said.

“What are you looking at?” Darren asked coming up behind Joel to look over his shoulder. He wrapped his arms around Joel from behind and rested his chin on Joel’s shoulder. Joel smiled and turned his head slightly to look at Darren’s face.

“Didn’t know you had this,” Joel said with a smirk. Darren huffed and reached out for the picture but Joel snactched the picture away. He turned around in Darren’s arms so they were face to face and he reached up to wrap his arms around Darren’s neck.

“Yeah, I mean, I like the picture, it’s whatever,” Darren said not looking Joel in the eyes. Joel smiled up at him and then got on his tiptoes to press their lips together. They had a small box of things from the apartment that Darren was keeping but the rest of it they put in trash bags and carried the old furniture he didn’t want to the curb.

Darren didn’t realize it at first, but that apartment had been a major weight on his shoulders. When he walked out of there once they were all done, he felt like he could breathe deeply for the first time in a long time. It was like he was letting the past go and he could focus on the present. Darren reached for Joel’s hand as they walked to his car and Joel looked up at him in surprise.

Darren didn’t usually go for public displays of affection because he wasn’t as comfortable in his sexuality yet as Joel was. He would give him small touches on the arm or the small of his back when they were in the store or waiting for a table at a restaurant but as soon as someone looked at them weird Darren would pull away. It made Joel a little upset at first but then he remembered how he was before he came out of the closet. Joel smiled and squeezed Darren’s hand as Darren rubbed his thumb in circles on the back of Joel’s hand. Joel smiled even bigger when Darren didn’t pull away when a couple with their two young daughters walked past. The mom gave them a small greeting as they passed each other and Darren nodded back at her. They weren’t perfect and they still had a long way to go, but this gave Joel hope that things would turn out okay.

**Author's Note:**

> i'm really proud of this t b h. if anyone does read this it would be so awesome if you left a kudos and maybe a comment also check out my tumblr blackleatherduster.tumblr.com also thank you


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